The Cape Metro is home to more than 270 000 informal households. During the lockdown, the challenges these households face became even more pronounced.
And with the state of poverty in the country, the rise of new settlements such as Covid-19 in Mfuleni has quickly grown to be one of the biggest in the city.
City of Cape Town’s spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo says there are around 4 000 informal settlements in the country. Just under 700 are in the Cape metro.
“According to our dataset, the oldest (informal settlements) are Freedom Park in the Airport precinct and Sixth Avenue in Kensington. The largest are newly formed and flow into one another. They are Covid-19 in Mfuleni and New Monwabisi Park 1 in Khayelitsha,” he says, highlighting the influence of the lockdown.
“The vulnerability and scale of informal residents across the metro has increased tremendously since Covid-19. The large-scale unlawful occupation that took place while the emergency regulations were in effect also added to this. These regulations prevented the prevention of unlawful occupation. Some of the most populated, most vulnerable Covid-19 created settlements have been a direct result of political instigation. Organised syndicates also played a role. There are also many incidents of individual need, especially when people lost their jobs.”
High Risk
With the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the large-scale unlawful occupations during the national lockdown created 186 new informal settlements. This brought the total to 683 settlements.
Tyhalibongo says: “More than 60% of these new settlements are considered high risk. They are situated under power lines, in wetlands, retention ponds, dams, low-lying inappropriate land, and biodiversity protected areas. We’d need about 500 ha of land for these new occupants. They are at risk due to their physical location.”
Of the aid offered to informal residents, such as electrification and sanitation, the City only manages settlements on its own land. They use public funds from national and provincial government or rates income from ratepayers.
This means all spend must be done in terms of the City’s budget cycles.
This is a supreme legislative requirement, says Tyhalibongo.
New settlements not budgeted for
The budget pays for what is in the City’s Integrated Development Plan.
“If new informal settlements are established, they are not planned and not budgeted for,” Tyhalibongo says. Importantly, the management of existing informal settlements, such as cleaning toilets, or rubbish removal, is ultimately paid for by ratepayers. The resources are not limitless, as the number of ratepayers are not large or growing. For upgrading of informal settlements programmes, national government grant transfers are used,” he says, explaining implications from the lockdown.
Settlements that have been planned and budgeted for must get priority.
“The more informal settlements are established, the greater the pressure,” Tyhalibongo says. The new ones are assessed to see where they are established. For instance, the City has limitations if they are established on private land or nature reserve land. They also assess how dangerous the conditions are, the number of people, and whether they qualify for any type of housing assistance in terms of the law. Lastly, they consider whether any services can be provided at all, such as rubbish removal,” he says.
Formal housing
While the dwellings are informal, the City do not consider residents in these settlements as homeless.
If eligible, they can apply for formal housing on the Housing Needs Register during or after the lockdown.
The City offers services where possible on informal settlements on its land.
However, some land is not suitable for human habitation and cannot connect to underground water or electricity.
“Where it can, it will roll out water and sanitation and electrical services as well as rubbish collection,” says Tyhalibongo.
“Informal settlements on private land or other government land are tricky. The City may not provide services without permission in terms of the law. Often the City will, where feasible, provide services such as water standpipes, and rubbish removal on the peripheries of such land. The local land conditions, as well as how densely populated a settlement is and the budget conditions, are key factors.”
With the mentioned day-to-day running of budgeted informal settlements, the City also upgrades existing settlements with grants where feasible.
But, Metros will require much more funding, land and human resources to tackle housing, he says.
“In recognition that informality is something that will remain with all cities in South Africa, a large focus has been and continues to be the upgrading of informal settlements and mainstreaming basic service provision,” says Tyhalibongo.
“In 2024 some R390 million was earmarked for informal settlements upgrading projects. The City’s Human Settlements Directorate has spent approximately 99% of its entire budget on human settlements. This shows strong commitment and that the money allocated to its human settlements projects and programmes is going where it is earmarked to go.”
